A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 762 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 762 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15.

Soon after they had finished, nine women exhibited themselves, and sat down fronting the hut where the chief was.  A man then rose, and struck the first of these women on the back, with both fists joined.  He proceeded, in the same manner, to the second and third; but when he came to the fourth, whether from accident or design I cannot tell, instead of the back, he struck her on the breast.  Upon this a person rose instantly from the crowd, who brought him to the ground with a blow on the head; and he was carried off without the least noise or disorder.  But this did not save the other five women from so odd a discipline, or perhaps necessary ceremony; for a person succeeded him, who treated them in the same manner.  Their disgrace did not end here; for when they danced, they had the mortification to find their performance twice disapproved of, and were obliged to repeat it.  This dance did not differ much from that of the first women, except in this one circumstance, that the present set sometimes raised the body upon one leg, by a sort of double motion, and then upon the other alternately, in which attitude they kept snapping their fingers; and, at the end, they repeated, with great agility, the brisk movements, in which the former group of female dancers had shewn themselves so expert.

In a little tine, a person entered unexpectedly, and said something in a ludicrous way, about the fireworks that had been exhibited, which extorted a burst of laughter from the multitude.  After this, we had a dance composed of the men, who attended, or had followed, Feenou.  They formed a double circle (i.e. one within another) of twenty-four each, round the chorus, and began a gentle soothing song, with corresponding motions of the hands and head.  This lasted a considerable time, and then changed to a much quicker measure, during which they repeated sentences, either in conjunction with the chorus, or in answer to some spoken by that band.  They then retreated to the back part of the circle, as the women had done, and again advanced, on each side, in a triple row, till they formed a semicircle, which was done very slowly, by inclining the body on one leg, and advancing the other a little way, as they put it down.  They accompanied this with such a soft air as they had sung at the beginning; but soon changed it to repeat sentences in a harsher tone, at the same time quickening the dance very much, till they finished with a general shout and clap of the hands.  The same was repeated several times; but, at last, they formed a double circle, as at the beginning, danced, and repeated very quickly, and finally closed with several very dexterous transpositions of the two circles.

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.